i have the 96 with the 8.8

can anyone give me a quick walk through on how to remove the drum brakes enough to pull out the axle shafts about 6 inchs so i can put my spool in? i got the inside of the diff part.


and not to do any chevy bashing. but .
ive been workin on a 87 k5 the past few days. my friend bought it and dove it from joshua to colleyville. about 40 minutes on the highway. and she went home dropped off the top and was driving from her house to her friends and the tranny dropped a duce and lost all the fluid. the pump fried and apparenty the th700r4 tranz pump is very moody. so me and a buddy dropped it for her and went from one tranz shop to get a free diagnostic and he wouldnt put it back together unless we payed for him too but its fine cause we took it to a different place who rebuilt it in one day. AND the first place kept the converter. i had to go the next day and talk it out of him.

so heres the chevy part. little background. every vehicle ive worked on has been a ford. ive replaced my tranz in my driveway with the help of a fellow blue oval boy.

the k5 has a 8" skyjacker lift, 400c.i. motor with long tube headers. 4x4 35x15.50r15 super swamper tsl boggers. i'm 5'10" and i can sit on my knees and my head doesnt hit the floor boards.

i went and picked up the new tranz and started puttin it in by myself had it all the way up there already put fluid in the converter and all that and we kept tryin to bolt it up all the way and it wouldnt. i put the converter in till it snuggged against the pump. (like fords do) didnt know that with chevys you have to twist it more and push it into the pump. so they had to take it off and put it back up.

itll be up and running and covered in mud in no time

 

If they don't just slide off you might need to back the brakes off some. Another problem is the rusting of the center hub, this can be removed with a bfh and some light penetrating oil.

 

I think the axles are held in by some type of clips...

 

yup. just had to take the wheels off drain the diff and take the cover off push the axle in a little bit and get one of the tiny little extendable magnets to pull the c clips out.

the mini spool works great. i can make it up the other side of the river now. ill have to take some pictures. the only complaint is that it sounds like im in a police chase when i turn in parking lots. haha all in all im satisfied.

it took a little modification to get to work but it was worth it